Direct access to unraid cache via Virtual Machine hosted on unraid?

[je82]

Is it possible to map a path directly to an ssd used as an cache for unraid? I have a usecase where i want to have a VM being able to directly access the unraid cache and have as fast as possible IO with this disk, meanwhile unraid also needs to have access to this disk and as fast as possible IO too.

 

Is there any good approach to doing this?

[Rinny]

I've been searching for this answer as well, especially for my Windows VM.

[itimpi]

On 10/1/2022 at 7:04 PM, je82 said:

Is it possible to map a path directly to an ssd used as an cache for unraid? I have a usecase where i want to have a VM being able to directly access the unraid cache and have as fast as possible IO with this disk, meanwhile unraid also needs to have access to this disk and as fast as possible IO too.

 

Is there any good approach to doing this?

I suspect that the easiest (and possibly best performant) way to achieve this will be to enable Disk Shares and then access the cache disk as a network share from the VM. 

[Rinny]

There are certain applications that won't allow you to install to or use a network mapped drive. Also, like the OP stated, would like the best performance possible similar to bare metal  experience. SMB wouldn't even come close to reaching SSD speed.

[Kilrah]

The new virtiofs in 6.11.1 might be a bit faster, but there's no miracle and you won't get best performance without passing through the drive, which would make it unavaliable for unraid...

[itimpi]

32 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

The new virtiofs in 6.11.1 might be a bit faster, but there's no miracle and you won't get best performance without passing through the drive, which would make it unavaliable for unraid...

I was reluctant to suggest the virtiofs option as I have seen posts that suggest going via a network share is faster on a VM->Host transfer.